Wow. I thought that they were done repeating the same mistakes that have been haunting this team the entire season. Wrong again. In last night’s 6-4 loss to the Royals, in 10 innings, dropping their extra inning record to 1-8, they repeated the same script that they have so many times this season.
The story begins very promising, with our antagonists grabbing a 4-1 lead in the 5th inning; Branyan HR and King Felix cruising along in his usual fashion; Piling up pitch count, but getting his K per inning and not giving up runs. Felix has a nice ability to get himself out of trouble by kicking it into that next level. I unfortunately know the ending to this story having watched it countless times this season.
Wakamatsu goes to the new set up guy in the bullpen, Brandon League, after Felix has thrown 112 pitches. League scares me. He has a very odd delivery that tricks my eyes because I never believe he is throwing the ball as hard as the radar gun suggests. It looks like he is chucking it up there not quite sidearm but not quite ¾ delivery, yet the ball is regularly in there at 96 mph. He is either lights out or coughs up the lead. Far too often, he coughs up the lead. I can’t tell from watching and don’t have access to ask anyone why this is but I would surmise it is because his fastball is delivered at eye level and either has movement or is flat. Now that (movement) is naturally the case with any pitcher, but on TV it looks to me like he had good movement last night.
Anyhow, he coughed up the lead. 4-4, moving to the bottom of the 8th. The Royals reluctantly go to their bullpen which has to be giving Ned Yost ulcers. They have given up more runs in the 7th and 8th inning than any team in baseball so there is hope for the punchless Mariners. Keep in mind that I still know the ending to this story but much like a bad car accident, I can’t help myself but to watch.
Branyan walks and Lopez doubles to right. Lucky double but we’ll take it. Men on second and third, nobody out and the D.A. warming up in the pen. I love that the Mariners announcer, Dave Simms, tagged David Aardsma with the nickname D.A. and that they play the Law and Order music when he comes into the game. Great stuff. Side note: Mariners fans at the game have seen this movie before as well. The crowd is busy drinking lattes and discussing whether or not it will rain clear through to December.
This is the point at which I can feel my blood pressure going up. Guttierez can do almost anything to get that run in except for striking out and popping up to the infield. Naturally he strikes out swinging. They intentionally walk Kotchman to get to Bradley. That sentence alone is pathetic/funny/ludicrous on so many levels. Bradley, who is being paid Carlos Silva money to play here, also strikes out.
Research forthcoming on how many times the Mariners have had runners on 2nd, 3rd or both with less than 2 out and didn’t score. It is freakishly high. There was a series in Texas earlier in the year where they did it 3 games in a row!
Cordero now on for the M's after Aardsma gets through the 9th. The top of the 10th was very odd in that two of the three outs were caught stealing, yet the Royals scored two runs. The one that irks me to no end begins with 2 outs, game stil tied. To recap the start of the inning, Callapso walked and got caught stealing. Aviles grounded out and then Maier tripled. Betancourt to the plate. This is where the mild anuerism set in. Cordero gets 2 quick strikes. It is important to note here that Betancourt has ZERO plate discipline (10 walks in 286 plate appearances, good for dead last of all MLB players with over 250 plate appearances), but if the ball is thrown over the middle of the plate, like most major leaguers, he can hit it. The next pitch was down the pipe and of course, Betancourt hit it plating Maier.
Throw the ball at the mascot, the umpire, anywhere but over the plate and there is a high probability that Betancourt will K. Baffling.
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